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Amy Levy
Amy Levy (10 November 1861 - 10 September 1889) was an English poet and novelist.Linda Hunt Beckman, "Amy Levy", Jewish Women: A Comprehensive Historical Encyclopedia. March 1, 2009. Jewish Women's Archive. Web, Mar. 1, 2013. Life by Richard Garnett Levy was born in Clapham, London, the 2nd daughter of Isabelle Levin and Lewis Levy. Her parents were of the Jewish faith. She early showed decided talent, especially for poetry, pieces afterwards thought worthy of preservation having been written in her 13th year.Garnett, 162. She was educated at Brighton, and afterwards at Newnham College, Cambridge. In 1881 a small pamphlet of her verse, Xantippe, and other verse, was printed at Cambridge. Most of the contents were subsequently incorporated with her 2nd publication, A Minor Poet, and other verse, 1884. Levy responded more readily to painful than to pleasurable emotions, and this incapacity for pleasure was a more serious trouble than her sensitiveness to pain: it deprived her of the encouragement she might otherwise have received. She was indeed frequently happy and animated, but her cheerfulness was but a passing mood that merely gilded her habitual melancholy, without diminishing it by a particle, while sadness grew upon her steadily, in spite of flattering success and the sympathy of affectionate friends. After a fortunate essay with a minor work of fiction, The Romance of a Shop, success attended her remarkable novel, Reuben Sachs, 1889. This is a most powerful work, alike in the condensed tragedy of the main action, the striking portraiture of the principal characters, and the keen satire of the less refined aspects of Jewish society. It brought upon the authoress much unpleasant criticism, which, however, was far from affecting her spirits to the extent alleged. She was the anonymous translator of Pérés's clever brochure, Comme quoi Napoléon n'a jamais existé. In the summer of 1889 she published a pretty, and for once cheerful story, Miss Meredith, but within a week after correcting her 3rd volume of poems for the press, she died by her own hand in her parents' house, 7 Endsleigh Gardens, London. No cause can or need be assigned for this lamentable event except constitutional melancholy, intensified by painful losses in her own family, increasing deafness, and probably the apprehension of insanity, combined with a total inability to derive pleasure or consolation from the extraneous circumstances which would have brightened the lives of most others. Writing by Richard Garnett Her writings offer few traces of the usual immaturity of precocious talent; they are carefully constructed and highly finished, and the sudden advance made in Reuben Sachs indicates a great reserve of undeveloped power. "Xantippe" is in many respects her most powerful production, exhibiting a passionate rhetoric and a keen, piercing dialectic, exceedingly remarkable in so young a writer. It is a defence of Socrates's maligned wife, from the woman's point of view, full of tragic pathos, and only short of complete success from its frequent reproduction of the manner of both the Brownings. The same may be said of "A Minor Poet," a poem now more interesting than when it was written, from its evident foreshadowing of the melancholy fate of the author herself. The most important pieces in the volume are in blank verse, too colloquial to be finely modulated, but always terse and nervous. A London Plane Tree, and other verse, 1889, is, on the other hand, chiefly lyrical. Most of the pieces are individually beautiful; as a collection they weary with their monotony of sadness. Recognition Oscar Wilde wrote an obituary for her in Women's World in which he praised her gifts. Publications Poetry *''Xantippe, and other verse. Cambridge, UK: E. Johnson, 1881.Xantippe and other verse. Levy, Amy 1861-1899. Victorian Women Writer's Project, University of Indiana. Web, Mar. 3, 2013. *A Minor Poet, and other verse'' (includes Xantippe and other verse). London: T. Fisher Unwin, 1884, 1891; New York: Stokes, 1891. *''A London Plane-Tree, and other verse. London: T. Fisher Unwin, 1889; New York: Stokes, 1890. Novels *''The Romance of a Shop. London: T. Fisher Unwin, 1888; Boston: Cupples & Hurd, 1889; Peterborough, ON: Broadview Press 2006. *''Reuben Sachs: A sketch. London & New York: Macmillan, 1888; Peterborough, ON: Broadview Press, 2006. *Miss Meredith. London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1889; Montreal: J. Lovell, 1889. Collected editions *''Complete Novels and Selected Writings, 1861-1889 (edited by Melvyn New). Gainsville, FL: University Press of Florida, 1993. Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy WorldCat.Search results = au:Amy Levy, WorldCat, OCLC, Online Computer Library Center Inc. Web, Mar. 29, 2016. See also * List of British poets References * . Wikisource, Web, Feb. 19, 2017. * Linda Hunt Beckman, "Amy Levy: Her life and letters," Athens: Ohio, 2000; * Iveta Jusova, The New Woman and the Empire. The Ohio State University Press, 2005. * Judith Flanders. Inside the Victorian Home: A portrait of domestic life in Victorian England. New York: W. W. Norton, 2006 * Susan Bernstein, ed., Reuben Sachs introduction and other readings by Levy and others, Broadview, 2006. Notes External links ;Poems * Poem of the Week: Philosophy by Amy Levy in The Guardian *4 poems by Levy: "London in July," "In September," "A June-Tide Echo," "A March Day in London" *Levy in A Victorian Anthology, 1837-1895: "A London Plane-Tree," "Between the Showers," "In the Mile End Road," "To Vernon Lee" * Selected Poetry of Amy Levy (1861-1889) (5 poems) at Representative Poetry Online *Levy in A Book of Women's Verse: "A London Plane-Tree," "In September," "In the Nower," "Cambridge in the Long," "New Love, New Life," "London Poets" * Amy Levy poems on Cordula's Web. *Poems by Amy Levy at World Poetry Movement * Amy Levy at PoemHunter (74 poems) *Amy Levy at Poetry Nook (83 poems) ;Audio / video *Amy Levy poems at YouTube * MP3 recording of Levy's novel Reuben Sachs: A sketch from LibriVox. * A London Plane-tree, and other verse at LibriVox. ;About *Levy, Amy in the [[Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition|1911 Encyclopædia Britannica]] * Amy Levy at the Jewish Women's Archive *Amy Levy (1861-99) at the Victorian Web * Critical analysis of Levys's work * Levy, Amy Category:1861 births Category:1889 deaths Category:English poets Category:English novelists Category:English Jews Category:Female suicides Category:Jewish poets Category:Jewish writers Category:Deaf writers Category:Women of the Victorian era Category:Alumni of Newnham College, Cambridge Category:Women poets Category:Women novelists Category:English women writers Category:Suicides by carbon monoxide poisoning Category:People educated at Brighton and Hove High School Category:Deaf poets Category:19th-century poets Category:19th-century women writers Category:English-language poets Category:Poets Category:Poets who committed suicide Category:Poets who died before 30